Civil War – L & L Shenanigans

On Saturday night we attended a “Pride and Prejudice” dance in Massachusetts; it was a fun night, and I got to buy a regency dress to wear. It was mostly a success, except people kept tripping on my train, and by people, I mean mostly me, I kept tripping on the train, but other people did too. It was still a lot of fun. The next day we got the opportunity to visit Louisa May Alcott‘s Orchard House. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures, since they are prohibited in the home, but I’ll share the link to the museum’s website where you can find some photos.

Concord, Mass is an adorable little town, that happens to have been the home to a number of famous Americans! In addition to the Alcott family (Louisa had several sisters — Little Women is loosely based on her and her sisters — one of which was a rather well-known artist in her time), Ralph Waldo Emerson was a resident, as was Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry David Thoreau. There are other more contemporary famous people from the town, but these were historical contemporaries with Louisa.

In addition to the museums and homes dedicated to these literary giants, there are a ton of really beautiful historic homes, and really beautiful less historic, but still impressive homes. After our tour we took some time to just drive around and admire the architecture. As we did so we found a rather cute bridge to stop and take some pictures from. There wasn’t any traffic so we were able to stop for a couple of minutes; when we did a lady driving the opposite way saw us put our window down and assumed we needed to ask her a question. She stopped and told us a little about her town. She was so, so nice, and really seemed to love her little town. You don’t always encounter such hospitality, it was refreshing.

Back to Louisa. The museum gives a fairly thorough history of the life of Louisa, her parents, and her sisters. If you like history, you will appreciate the level of detail they share.

Louisa, unlike the character she based on herself in Little Women (Jo) , she was a “free spinster;” meaning she was free to live her life as she wished without the encumbrance of a spouse. She truly seemed to prefer it this way…she often wrote in her journals about never needing or wanting to get married… except for one instance, where she said she would have gotten married just to receive a kiss from Thoreau (who had kissed her sister on her wedding day).

Sadly, Louisa died at a relatively young age due to a stroke, that was believed to e caused by mercury poisoning she suffered working as a nurse during the Civil War.

I highly recommend visiting the Orchard House if you ever find yourself in Massachusetts. It’s worth the entrance price ($15 or $10 if you get a group price) to spend an afternoon learning about the lives of this interesting family, though the inability to take photos was a bit disappointing. Also, certain Covid-19 measures are still in place for the visit — they still have timed entries, and they require masks to enter any of the buildings. I’m not sure if this will change in the future, but it’s good to come prepared so you can mask up when asked.

https://louisamayalcott.org/visit

https://visitconcord.org

This past week was my last few days with my family in Texas. So I took Monday and Tuesday off so I could maximize my time. My sister (Rita) was a total rockstar these last few weeks trying to make sure I had somewhere to feature on my blog.

I am not originally from Texas, nor is my sister, but she married a Texan and she is a Texan through and through. She’s very proud of her state, and the small town where she has made her life. I love that about her. I also love that she actively seeks out interesting things and places where she lives. That’s really what this portion of my blog is about, appreciating the places around you. Be a tourist in your own town and find the hidden gems that make your home your home.

My sister was super excited to take me to Mrs. Lee’s Daffodil Garden. It was it’s first weekend open of the season and it’s definitely a unique experience for Gladewater. On Sunday they had proclaimed on their Facebook page that they were open for business, so Monday morning we took care of some errands in the morning, then picked up a couple of pizzas to eat as we drove through the beautiful daffodils… only to discover that they had decided that morning not to open. It was so disappointing.

My three year old nephew was really disappointed that he didn’t get to see Mrs. Lees, so we decided to regroup at Gladewater Lake and let Brayden get some time running around in the sunshine. The weather was beautiful, the lake was pleasant, and there was a decent playground for the kiddos. My sister thought Camp Ford would be a great place to visit for Tourist Tuesday. So we picked my niece up from school before heading out of Gladewater to Tyler.

Camp Ford is an historical park where a Civil War P.O.W. Camp once stood. I really want to say that it’s a beautiful park and totally worth the trip to Tyler… but I’d be lying. Maybe sometime in the past, but it has fallen into disrepair; a couple of the trails were closed off for what appeared to be pretty unsafe conditions (one bridge had completely collapsed). Obviously it’s the end of winter, so the trees were still dead, and the ground was covered with fallen leaves, my guess is it’s quite beautiful in the spring and summer with all the foliage on full display.

In spite of the rather dilapidated appearance of the park, it’s historical significance is interesting, and there were plenty of plaques with information regarding the usage and history of the camp. I had never considered prisoners of war during the Civil War, but they existed, and (apparently) the South held more prisoners than the North. The Union would have preferred to execute them for treason, but they were compelled to hold prisoners for exchange since the Confederacy held so many prisoners.